The 5 Spring Beauty Trends Men Love Most

If you’ve ever asked your brother, dad, or boyfriend a makeup-related question, you know that there is serious comedy in having men explain anything having to do with beauty. In the confusing world of eyeshadow, hairspray, and glitter, it’s always interesting to see how their opinions on looks line up with our own. That’s why, after reading seemingly endless reviews and roundups of beauty looks poised to trend for spring, we decided to take it to a group with a little less invested in the matter: guy friends.

We showed a group of six veritably different male friends of Byrdie’s a super-compilation of spring’s trending beauty looks. Supplied with magazines, slideshows, and a voice recorder, and, some liquid encouragement (also pronounced: beer), they began sharing their honest, unfiltered (and uncensored) opinions about the spring beauty looks those of us submerged in the beautysphere have been talking about since last September.

Some trends were liked, some trends were hated, and some trends were across-the-board beloved. Here are the five universal favourites.

Click through to see the 5 spring beauty looks that men love most…

[Full disclaimer: we here at Byrdie are firm believers that you can—and should—wear whichever beauty looks you please. Beauty is a form of expression, and you and only you should decide how you present yourself to the world. This is merely a look into how men outside of the beauty realm perceive the looks that inspire our beauty routines. Enjoy.]

Natural, “no-makeup makeup” looks were by far the favorites of the group. Paramount was that these looks enhanced a woman’s existing beauty. Looks—like this one from Michael Kors—that featured clean skin, bare or minimal eyes, a touch of rosy blush, and soft, pink lips were applauded repeatedly. They felt this makeup made the models look “healthy and pretty,” and deemed it “by far, the most beautiful look of the group.” (They loved it so much that they actually requested that it make the list twice.)

“You got braids on the list, right?” Braids were another big winner with this group. From messy to milkmaid, French to fishtail, the gents loved every style. (Click here for 12 inspiring braid styles to try right now.)

Though they found most of the colorful runway eye looks we showed them “absolutely ludicrous,” the blue-lined eye from Marc Jacobs S/S ’14 was a surprising hit. The caveat here was moderation: they liked the striking-yet-subtle liner looks, but felt that colorful eyeshadow took the idea too far. Warm color iterations of this trend generated “sickly” comments, while looks like this that featured colors on the cool end of the spectrum–blues, greens, and purples–were received well.

It turns out gentlemen love a creative spirit when it comes to nail art – who knew? The polish colors they liked most were white, black, and blue (“all my favorite colors!”), as well as pastels, metallics, and pastel metallics (“like the Hershey Easter egg chocolates.”). If you’re thinking about getting your nails done soon, here are some of our favorite polishes of the moment.